Canada

Drug treatment courts (DTCs) are a recent phenomenon in the Canadian criminal justice system. The first Canadian DTC commenced in Toronto in 1998. The Federal Government currently supports six DTCs in Canada including: Edmonton (December 2005), Winnipeg (January 2006), Ottawa (March 2006), Regina (October 2006), Toronto (1998), and Vancouver (2001). Calgary and Durham have also recently initiated DTCs.[2]

New Zealand

A five-year pilot Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Court was opened in Auckland, New Zealand in 2012, the first of its type for the country.[3]

United Kingdom

In the UK, drug courts are currently being tested in various places.[4] In December 2005, the United Kingdom began a pilot scheme of dedicated drug courts.[5] Family Drug and Alcohol Court are in operation in various locations throughout the country, including London, Gloucestershire and Milton Keynes where the service is run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.[6] In February 2015 it was announced that more would open in East Sussex, Kent and Medway, Plymouth, Torbay and Exeter, and West Yorkshire.[7]

Effectiveness in the United States

Drug court is the single most successful intervention in US history for leading people struggling with serious addiction out of the justice system and into lives of health and long-term recovery. Numerous studies show that punishment simply does not solve the problem of addiction; in fact, 95% of those released from prison return to drug use.[10] The punitive approach has produced disastrous societal and economic consequences for our communities, resulting in 1.5 million seriously addicted people behind bars[11] and more than $80 billion spent annually on corrections.[12] Drug courts connect participants with evidence-based treatment for a minimum of one year and work as a team to help them stay in treatment long enough to be successful. In fact, drug courts refer more people to treatment than any other intervention in America, and those people are more successful in treatment than any other group. The average national completion rate for drug court participants in 2014 was nearly 60%; this is approximately two-thirds higher than probation and more than twice the rate of probationers with severe substance use disorders. Once an individual graduates from the program, there is a 75% chance they will remain arrest-free, compared to only 30% for people released from prison.[13]

The drug court model and its principles uphold the enduring, absolute value of every human person and are changing the US perspective on what it means to serve justice. The result is a variety of court programs now focused on treatment rather than incarceration for repeat DWI offenders,[14] parents whose children have been removed from the home due to substance use, juveniles facing criminal charges, tribal communities torn apart by addiction, and veterans struggling with the lingering effects of trauma.[15] These programs prove that providing individualized treatment plans and dignity-restoring support is the most effective way to lead people into recovery and break the cycle of recidivism.

In this way, drug court is the foundation of the current criminal justice reform movement in the US, giving rise to other incarceration alternatives, diversion programs, sentencing and juvenile justice reforms, harm reduction strategies, and the establishment of reentry programs for prisoners with substance use histories. Drug court introduced humanity in a system that has relied on inhumane tactics for too long, proving that it is possible to repair lives, reunite families, and reduce drug use and crime, and to do so for far fewer tax dollars than the cost of jail or prison.[16]

Women and Drug Courts in United States

From the first rudimentary drug court to where these courts have come there have been very drastic changes. Drug courts are less about punitive punishment and have transformed into a means of rehabilitation and help for drug users alike. Women however are typically treated with much more forgiveness than males however when it comes to handling them in the court system as a whole.Women are sometimes forced into drugs through other outlets such as human trafficking, prostitution, sexual abuse and mental abuse as well. All of these factors have a very different manner in which they effect females.[17]

External links

What is a drug court? Fact sheet This is a knowledge transfer web site provided by the Addiction and Mental Health Research Laboratory, University of Alberta dedicated to sharing recent addictions and mental health research with the public.